ONLY about one job a day has been created for people on the dole under the Government's latest scheme to tackle joblessness among graduates and other unemployed people.

In total, 258 jobs have been taken up under the work placement programme since its launch on May 27, 2009 -- 242 days ago. Under the scheme, the unemployed are paid the dole, rather than a wage, from their employer for nine months. So far, 1,273 placements have been made available but only a fifth of these have been taken up.

"There wasn't a huge take-up of the scheme last year," said a spokeswoman for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. "Tanaiste Mary Coughlan expanded the scheme last November to encourage take-up."

The work placement programme is one of a number of schemes launched by the Government to tackle joblessness.

Last August, the Tanaiste announced an employment subsidy scheme to protect vulnerable jobs, where certain companies can get a subsidy to support workers that could otherwise be made redundant. But only a quarter of the €70m initially set aside last year to protect vulnerable jobs has been paid out to firms so far.

Last December, up to €65m of additional subsidies were made available under a second round of funding but none of this money has yet been paid out to any of the 2,600 firms who applied for it.